Haha I have a lecture in four minutes, and I tried to write this as quickly as I could. I hope it is coherent.
Thank you for the preliminary reactions and reviews to the story! I hope it will be enjoyable in the future :)
Disclaimer: I don't own GMW or A Walk To Remember.
Five years ago. . .
Lucas had always liked the stars. The gentle and quiet peace they had to them. They were perfect for escaping from the world when reality no longer interested him. They provided relief. A kind of healing for the weary, in a way. When he was younger, he used to spend countless hours watching the stars from his bedroom window and hoping that his parents would stop arguing long enough for him to go to sleep.
They never stopped.
But at least the stars never let him down.
They were always there.
Lucas sat perched on the top of the gates of John Adams high school, staring at the sky, nonchalantly sipping his beer as the wind knocked against his side, threatening to tip him over if he weren't gripping the top rail so tightly. It wasn't particularly hot or humid that night, since summer had ended a while ago, but the air was still dry and stale, and he could feel every sharp burst of wind on his neck and face.
There was something ominous in the air that night. Something restless and uncontrollable buzzing in the air, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
And he loved it.
He loved the adrenaline pulsing through his veins and that feeling of the start of a thrill slowly crawling up his back. This feeling? The one of being on the edge, right at the cusp of danger or running from the law was what he lived for.
"Lucas, c'mon man. Are you seriously star-gazing again?" Zay called out from further in the parking lot, waving his bottle in the air, "Hurry your ass up."
Lucas hopped down from the top of the fence and almost fell on his ass, laughing as he stumbled and tried to regain his balance. He ambled over to Billy, standing a little bit away holding their black bag under his arms.
"You brought the stuff?" Lucas asked, dropping his empty bottle on ground and kicking it away with a clatter. It rolled innocuously across the ground before it got caught on a crack in the asphalt and came to an abrupt stop.
"Yeah." Billy smirked, throwing his own can haphazardly behind his back.
They walked to where Zay waited, a similar mischievous grin on his face.
"Where's Brandon?"
Zay gestured his thumb behind him, "Taking a piss behind that tree."
Billy's face curled in disgust at the mention, "Dude, you're always taking a piss."
Brandon walked out from the place, zipping up his pants with a crooked, drunken smirk. "Hey. When a man's gotta whizz, a man's gotta whizz."
"Whatever, man." Lucas said, taking the bag from Billy, "Let's just do this shit."
They took out the cans of spray paint and shook them up, snickering under their breaths as they approached the south brick wall of their gym building. Billy laughed as he started painting a giant penis on the side of the building.
"Real mature…" Zay drawled, right before he started drawing boobs.
They all took their own sections, sniggering and snorting at what they were leaving on the wall.
Four cans of spray paint and a handful of beers later, the wall was perfectly decorated with obscene images and lewd phrases and words. It was a masterpiece. The school admins would be in for a nasty surprise come Monday morning. Lucas smirked, thinking about how great it would be to see old Hearst's reaction to their little gift.
Billy leaned his arm on Lucas' shoulder, shaking his head, "Beautiful, isn't it?"
"Couldn't have said it better myself." Lucas said, watching as Brandon put the finishing touches on a leaf of cannabis.
"Hey, where are we gonna stash these empty cans?" he asked over his shoulder, shaking the bottle to try to get any last dregs of paint out.
"The drama club keeps their shit in the shed behind the gym. Let's put them in there." Zay replied, dropping his beer can on the ground and his empty paint can in the black bookbag.
They followed him to the back, keeping a careful eye out for any officers doing night patrole. They rounded the corner and came to the shed. In front of the shed were shoddily built sets for the play, paint still drying. Aside from the pretty well painted scenery on each piece, it looked like some cheap crap that some child had made.
Zay took one look at the set pieces and started busting out laughing, slapping his thigh and guffawing.
"Holy shit, are those the sets for the play?"
"These look fucking awful…" Brandon snorted, "Looks like some crap a little kid would do."
And then he picked one of them up and smashed it on the ground, breaking it into two. Billy laughed and joined in, stomping on it and breaking it into more pieces. The wind blew harshly, rustling their clothes and hair.
"Yo, Zay." Brandon said, "You got your lighter? We need to light this crap up."
"Hey, you sure that's a good idea…" Lucas frowned, not entirely comfortable with that. "We'll bring too much attention to ourselves."
A gust of wind blew through the air and rolled an empty can of theirs along the parking lot, the scraping sound being heard through the air.
"It'll just be a little one. Chill."
"Yeah," Billy agreed, laughing. "And we're doing the drama club a favour. Because damn these sets look bad."
Lucas shrugged. "Alright, but if you get burned, I'm gonna sit here and laugh at you."
Zay crouched next to the set piece with a goofy smile on his face and sparked the flame on the corner of it. It licked and lapped at the wood slowly, eating the edge and turning it brown as the fire slowly spread. Zay stood up and went back to his place next to the other boys, watching the fire slowly grow.
"Well this is kind of a buzz kill…" Brandon drawled. "Anyone got some gasoline? Speed this process up."
"You smokin' something?" Billy gave him a look, "We'd blow the whole thing up and cause a real mess."
"Man, you and Lucas are a pair of pussies…" he clicked his tongue in disgust, "A little bit of gasoline's not gonna do anything. I mean look how slowly this fire is going."
And then a burst of wind blew once again, harsh and sharp and right over the fire they had made.
The fire was tugged forward almost immediately, growing larger as it suddenly engulfed more of the set piece. Some of the fire jumped up and Lucas' brows rose in alarm and even Zay took a little step back in surprise.
"Hey… you gotta stomp this out, Brandon." Billy said. "Shit's gonna get too big."
"Nah. It'll go away once it hits the paint."
But it didn't.
In fact, it was the exact opposite. As soon as a lick of flame hit the paint, the fire jumped, skipping higher and spreading unbelievably fast. So fast, that one of the sparks hit another nearby set piece that had been untouched. Another fully painted set piece. And to make matters even worse, the wind started blowing once again, shifting direction and spreading the fire over to other set pieces. In a matter of seconds, the fire had started to spring out of control.
Lucas' eyes widened, and he turned to Brandon, "Hey. You need to go find some water! We need to put this out right now!"
But Brandon was staring at it wide eyed, his expression completely lost and a little apprehensive. The fire had grown to enormous proportions and had now engulfed the entire cluster of twenty something set pieces. Smoke languidly trailed up into the night air as the wood violently cracked and popped. Anyone walking by the school would be able to see the light from the fire pretty easily.
"Brandon!" Billy called out. "Hey it's getting out of control! We need to put this shit out."
"Fuck that!" Brandon said, "I'm not staying for this shit!"
Lucas grabbed the front of his collar before he could run and yanked him forward, pulling him face to face and glaring down at him.
"You started this fucking fire! Figure out a way to fix this!"
A gust of wind blew again, and the fire spread to some grass in the nearby area.
"Like hell we need to do anything about this!" Zay shouted, as he turned and ran, "You guys are on your own!"
"Zay, what the fuck!" Lucas shouted.
His momentary distraction was enough for Brandon to pull himself out of Lucas' grasp and he stumbled away as well, running towards the gate where they'd parked his car. Billy stared at the giant fire for a few seconds before shaking his head and turning.
"Lucas, we should get the hell out of here."
"If we leave this fire, it'll just keep getting larger! We have to clean this mess up!"
Billy shook his head, "Naw man. I don't think there's anything we can do about it anymore."
"Billy c'mon!"
Billy raised his hands in apology before turning and running towards the fence with the others. Lucas let out a growl under his breath and gripped his hair, trying to think of how to tamper down the flames before they got any bigger than they already were. But it was starting to look like nothing short of a rain storm could cut this fire off.
"Hey!"
And then Lucas saw one of the night patrole officers running towards him, flashlight in hand, and blowing the crap out of his whistle.
"You, don't move!" the officer shouted.
"Shit!" Lucas hissed, turning around and running towards the direction of the fence.
But as he rounded the corner of the gym, another officer came out of nowhere, and Lucas was forced to come to an abrupt stop when he almost ran into him. He turned around again, but the other officer was almost directly behind him, and Lucas realized his escape had been effectively cut off. He was trapped.
The officer blew his whistle once again, "Put your hands behind your head and get down on your knees!"
Lucas did as he was told, slowly putting his hands behind his head as he dropped to his knees. One of the cops yanked the black bag out of Lucas' grasp, opening it and peering at the contents inside.
"We've got beers and spray paint cans here." He glowered at Lucas, "You the one that painted all that stuff on the wall, punk?"
Lucas snarled at him, pointedly ignoring the question.
"We're taking you downtown." He finally said when it became apparent Lucas had no intention of responding.
As one of the patrolmen yanked Lucas' arms down and handcuffed them behind his back, Lucas closed his eyes, letting out a long, uneasy breath.
He was so screwed.
